We should note that the general issue of whether the xsl:output can
affect the construction of the result tree goes beyond the specific
case cited here. For instance, if it is OK for xsl:output to do this,
then one might imagine that <xsl:output indent="yes"/> could lead to
the insertion of additional text nodes in the result tree, though to
my knowledge no XSLT processor yet does that.
--
Elliotte Rusty Harold
elharo(_at_)metalab(_dot_)unc(_dot_)edu
Effective XML (Addison-Wesley, 2003)
http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/effectivexml
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0321150406/ref%3Dnosim/cafeaulaitA